''Aelia acuminata'', common name Bishop's Mitre, is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of ''shield bug'' belonging to the family

Pentatomidae Pentatomidae is a family of insects belonging to the order Hemiptera, generally called shield bugs or stink bugs. Pentatomidae is the largest family in the superfamily Pentatomoidea, and contains around 900 genera and over 4700 species.Robert G ...

Distribution

This species is present in most of

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, in

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

and in

Northern Asia North Asia or Northern Asia, also referred to as Siberia, is the northern region of Asia, which is defined in geographical terms and is coextensive with the Asian part of Russia, and consists of three Russian regions east of the Ural Mountains: ...

(excluding

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

).Fauna europaea
/ref>

Habitat

These ''shield bugs'' mainly inhabit dry meadows and fields of cereals. They occurs in the Alps up to about 1300 meters above sea level.

Description

''Aelia acuminata'' can reach a length of .
/ref> These bugs have a slightly elongated body, with a pointed head (hence the species name ''acuminata''). The basic body color is light brown with darker brown longitudinal. The nymphs are already rather similar to the adults, although they are still wingless.

Biology

''Aelia acuminata'' is a

univoltine Voltinism is a term used in biology to indicate the number of broods or generations of an organism in a year. The term is most often applied to insects, and is particularly in use in sericulture, where silkworm varieties vary in their voltinism. ...

species. They have five nymphal stages in their development. Adults overwinter in litter or thickets. These bugs are herbivorous, feeding on various wild grasses and cereals. They suck many different types of grasses (''

Poaceae Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns an ...

''), mainly ''

Festuca ''Festuca'' (fescue) is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the grass family Poaceae (subfamily Pooideae). They are evergreen or herbaceous perennial tufted grasses with a height range of and a cosmopolitan distribution, occurring on every ...

'', ''

Poa ''Poa'' is a genus of about 570 species of grasses, native to the temperate regions of both hemispheres. Common names include meadow-grass (mainly in Europe and Asia), bluegrass (mainly in North America), tussock (some New Zealand species), a ...

'', ''

Agrostis ''Agrostis'' (bent or bentgrass) is a large and very nearly cosmopolitan genus of plants in the grass family, found in nearly all the countries in the world. It has been bred as a GMO creeping bent grass. Species * '' Agrostis aequivalvi'' ...

'', ''

Dactylis ''Dactylis'' is a genus of Eurasian and North African plants in the bluegrass subfamily within the grass family. ''Dactylis'' is native to North Africa, they are found throughout the world, and are an invasive species. They are known in Englis ...

'', ''

Lolium ''Lolium'' is a genus of tufted grasses in the bluegrass subfamily (Pooideae). It is often called ryegrass, but this term is sometimes used to refer to grasses in other genera. They are characterized by bunch-like growth habits. ''Lolium'' is ...

'' and ''

Bromus ''Bromus'' is a large genus of grasses, classified in its own tribe Bromeae. They are commonly known as bromes, brome grasses, cheat grasses or chess grasses. Estimates in the scientific literature of the number of species have ranged from 100 ...

'' species. They can cause significant damage in cereal fields.

Gallery

File:Aelia acuminata.ogv, Mating. Video clip File:2017 06 27 Aelia acuminata nymph.jpg, Nymph. File:Aelia acuminata beentree.jpg, Adults feeding on ''

Phalaris arundinacea ''Phalaris arundinacea'', or reed canary grass, is a tall, perennial bunchgrass that commonly forms extensive single-species stands along the margins of lakes and streams and in wet open areas, with a wide distribution in Europe, Asia, northern ...

'' File:Aelia acuminata - ZSM.jpg, Museum specimen Aelia acuminata-n1.jpg, Nymph, first stage Aelia acuminata-n2.jpg, Nymph, last instar

Bibliography

* Michael Chinery, Insectes de France et d'Europe occidentale, Paris, Flammarion, août 2012, 320 p. (), p. 72-73 * Amyot, C. J. B., and Audinet Serville (1843), Histoire Naturelle des Insectes Hémiptères * Ruiz, D., M. Goula, E. Infiesta, T. Monleón, M. Pujol, and E. Gordún (2003) Guía de identificación de los chinches de los cereales (Insecta, Heteroptera) encontrados en los trigos españoles, Boletín de Sanidad Vegetal, vol. 29, no. 4

References

Aelini Hemiptera of Europe Articles containing video clips Bugs described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus {{Pentatomidae-stub